**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM DONE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TEWKSBURY PUBLIC LIBRARY. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Meeting via email.**

Author C.S. Malerich will discuss her brand new novel, The Factory Witches of Lowell, a riveting historical fantasy about witches going on strike in the mill-town of Lowell, Massachusetts.

About The Book: Faced with abominable working conditions, unsympathetic owners, and hard-hearted managers, the mill girls of Lowell have had enough. They're going on strike, and they have a secret weapon on their side: a little witchcraft to ensure that no one leaves the picket line. For the young women of Lowell, freedom means fair wages for fair work, decent room and board, and a chance to escape the cotton mills before lint stops up their lungs. When the Boston owners decide to raise the workers’ rent, the girls go on strike. Their ringleader is Judith Whittier, a newcomer to Lowell but not to class warfare. Judith has already seen one strike fold and she doesn’t intend to see it again. Fortunately Hannah, her best friend in the boardinghouse—and maybe first love?—has a gift for the dying art of witchcraft.

About The Author: C. S. Malerich grew up in northern New Jersey. In addition to writing, she has taught mythology to undergrads at the University of Maryland and pursued interests in folklore, cultural studies, and public health, sometimes all at once. Her fiction explores intersections of liberation and justice, with an infectious dance beat. Her work has appeared in Apparition Lit, Ares Magazine, and the Among Animals anthologies. Her novel Fire & Locket was published in 2019.

This program is a collaboration between the Tewksbury Public Library and the Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell.